Greenberg v. Larox, Inc.

673 F. App'x 66
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 12, 2016
Docket15-3830-cv
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 673 F. App'x 66 (Greenberg v. Larox, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greenberg v. Larox, Inc., 673 F. App'x 66 (2d Cir. 2016).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff-appellant Kimerly Greenberg appeals from a judgment of the district court entered October 26, 2015, dismissing his complaint in this products liability action. By decision and order entered the same day, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants-appellees Larox, Incorporated (“Larox”) and its successor-in-interest Outotec (USA), Incorporated on the grounds that Greenberg had not identified a design defect and Larox had no duty to warn of the danger posed by using its product with another product. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and issues on appeal.

Larox manufactures pressure filters, which are machines that separate solids from liquids for use in chemical processing. Larox’s pressure filters use hydraulically powered drive rollers to pull filter cloths through the machines. Larox’s user manual has step-by-step instructions and diagrams for replacing used filter cloths with new ones. The replacement method described in the instructions and depicted in the diagrams involves the use of a standalone, external cloth rack, which the manual specifies is not included in the Larox delivery. Larox makes and sells customized racks only upon request. The replacement instructions also state, in bold, “Old cloth must keep tight when reeling.”

Greenberg'is a former employee of Xerox Corporation (“Xerox”) who sustained personal injuries at work while using a cloth rack, designed and manufactured by Xerox, to replace used filter cloth in a Larox pressure filter. In July 2011, he filed a complaint in New York Supreme Court alleging two claims against Larox: (1) a design defect in the pressure filter allowed the exiting filter cloth to develop “slack,” or fall loose, which became entangled with the drive roller and caused the hand crank on the cloth rack to reverse direction and cause him injury, and (2) Larox failed to warn him of that danger. Defendants removed the case to federal district court on diversity grounds in October 2011.1

In October 2015, the district court awarded defendants summary judgment based on its conclusions that Greenberg had not identified a defect in the pressure filter and that, pursuant to Rastelli v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 79 N.Y.2d 289, 582 N.Y.S.2d 373, 591 N.E.2d 222 (1992), Larox had no duty to warn Green-berg that the joint use of its pressure filter with Xerox’s cloth rack, a product over which it had no control, could pose a danger. Greenberg appeals on the grounds that Rastelli does not preclude imposing a duty to warn in this case and there are genuine disputes of material fact as to the existence of a defect in Larox’s machine, Larox’s duty to warn, and the adequacy of the warning in its user manual.

We review an award of summary judgment de novo and will affirm only if the record, viewed in favor of the party [69]*69against whom judgment was entered, shows there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Barfield v. N.Y.C. Health & Hosps. Corp., 537 F.3d 132, 140 (2d Cir. 2008).

1. Design Defect

Under New York products liability law, a product has a design defect if it, “as designed, presented a substantial likelihood of harm and feasibly could have been designed more safely.” Fane v. Zimmer, Inc., 927 F.2d 124, 128 (2d Cir. 1991) (citing Voss v. Black & Decker Mfg. Co., 59 N.Y.2d 102, 108, 463 N.Y.S.2d 398, 450 N.E.2d 204 (1983)). Courts assess whether, “if the design defect were known at the time of manufacture, a reasonable person would conclude that the utility of the product did not outweigh the risk inherent in marketing a product designed in that manner.” Id. (quoting Voss, 59 N.Y.2d at 108, 463 N.Y.S.2d 398, 450 N.E.2d 204).

“[W]e may affirm the award of summary judgment on any ground with adequate support in the record.” CILP Assocs., L.P. v. PriceWaterhouse Coopers LLP, 735 F.3d 114, 127 (2d Cir. 2013) (quoting VKK Corp. v. Nat’l Football League, 244 F.3d 114, 118 (2d Cir. 2001)). We hold, on the design defect claim, that the district court properly awarded defendants summary judgment, but not for the reason it articulated. It granted summary judgment on the basis that Greenberg had “only point[ed] to alleged defects in the Xerox cloth rack ... [and] fail[ed] to identify any defect in the Larox pressure filter itself.” Special App. at 7-9. The expert report by Greenberg’s mechanical engineering expert, however, viewed in the light most favorable to Greenberg, suggests the “cloth changing set-up” was defectively designed so as to allow used cloth exiting the machine to fall loose and be pulled back into the machine, which could, in turn, cause a manually-operated crank “down stream” to reverse direction and injure the crank operator. App. at 626. A reasonable jury could find the defect lay at least in part with Larox’s machine and its manner of pushing out used cloth, rather than with the hand crank on the cloth rack. Accordingly, the award of summary judgment on the basis specified by the district court was improper.

Summary judgment on the design defect claim, however, was nonetheless warranted because Greenberg failed to submit evidence that Larox could have designed a safer version of its product. It was Greenberg’s burden to show it was feasible for Larox to design a safer version of its pressure filter. See Fane, 927 F.2d at 128 (describing the plaintiff’s burden to show that the product, “as designed, presented a substantial likelihood of harm and feasibly could have been designed more safely”); Aaron Twerski & James A. Henderson Jr., Mfr.’s Liab. for Defective Prod. Designs: The Triumph of Risk-Utility, 74 Brook. L. Rev. 1061, 1062 (2009) (“[I]n the overwhelming majority of American jurisdictions, claims of defective design reach triers of fact only when the plaintiff offers plausible proof that her injuries would have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design.”). The alternative designs proposed by Greenberg’s expert apply to the hand erank on the cloth rack, not to the pressure filter. Because Greenberg did not offer proof of an alternative, safer design for the pressure filter itself, he could not prevail on his design defect claim. Adamo v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 11 N.Y.3d 545, 549-51, 872 N.Y.S.2d 415, 900 N.E.2d 966 (2008) (affirming reversal of jury verdict, initially rendered in plaintiffs’ favor, in design defect case because plaintiffs presented no evidence that defendants [70]*70could feasibly have designed safer version of cigarettes); Felix v.

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673 F. App'x 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greenberg-v-larox-inc-ca2-2016.